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Robert L. Crippen became a NASA astronaut in September 1969. He was a member of the astronaut support crew for the Skylab 2, 3, and 4 missions, and served in this same capacity for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission, which was completed successfully in July 1975. He served as pilot on STS-1 (April 12-14, 1981), and was the spacecraft commander on STS-7 (June 18-24, 1983), STS-41C (April 6-13, 1984) and STS-41G (October 5-13, 1984).

A four flight veteran, Crippen has logged over 565 hours in space, orbited the earth 374 times and traveled over 9.4 million miles. From 1986-1989, he was assigned as deputy director, Shuttle Operations, for NASA Headquarters at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, responsible for final Shuttle preparation, mission execution, and return of the orbiter to KSC after landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California. He also served as director, Space Shuttle, at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. from 1990 until he was named KSC director in 1992.